


Somewhere Only We Know

by shadowtriads



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Eramis can have one nice thing. As a treat., F/F, Fallen | Eliksni, Fluff without Plot, Set on Riis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29062851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowtriads/pseuds/shadowtriads
Summary: Eramis sat by the river and it made her complete.
Relationships: Eramis / Athrys
Comments: 16
Kudos: 30





	Somewhere Only We Know

**Author's Note:**

> Okay now I'm writing something where Eramis can be happy.
> 
> Credit for the idea goes to my very talented friend Tumblr user pirrha (Twitter @EXXXOSKE ) - this is all their concept, just I was given permission to adapt it!

The air was warm, humid but not uncomfortable. Noise like cicadas clicking and buzzing filled the air. Water bubbled off to one side, and between it all was an absent minded humming. Something recognisable. A song she couldn't place the words to.

Eramis opened her eyes, faced with a pale pink sky covered with light grey wisps of cloud and thick, turquoise grasses stretching out in front of her. ' _Where am I? This is familiar._ '

Bringing a hand to rub at her forehead through her helmet with a quiet groan, she attempted to orient herself as she slowly picked her limbs up. Amongst the grasses were ponds and streams dotted with peach and red water flowers. Large, sweeping trees shaded the water, lower branches illuminated by the glow of tiny bioluminescent creatures flitting beneath the surface. ' _The gardens? Close to my home - how did I get here?_ ' _I must be dreaming. Riis is gone._ '

"Ah! You're awake!" a voice crowed.

Her eyes flew open, recognizing the tone immediately. 'Athrys _?!_ '

She scrambled upright, and before her was her mate. Her jewellery was immaculate, coloured glass beads and ornate silver rings catching the light and glittering amongst her blue-green robes. Her own 'helmet' - a headpiece worn proudly by master artisans - was unblemished, gold decorations polished to a shine. The sheer chiffon material attached to it hid the loose strands of her hair, framing her joyful and relieved expression as she clasped her upper hands together.

"Thank the Light! You were out cold!" Athrys narrowed her eyes and purred at her. "I'm glad you're up, I was contemplating carrying you back home," she giggled. "Of course, then I realized I'm nowhere _near_ as strong as you, my dear."

Eramis's hearts stopped beating and raced all at once. The last she saw her mate in a dream, she was broken. Terrified. She clung to her like a pup, begging her to tell her where the Great Machine had gone and that it would come back soon to save them from the wraiths stalking past their home.

Athrys was gone. She lived more of her life without her than with. Yet there she was. As beautiful as the day they met.

Before she knew what she was doing, she threw herself at her mate and embraced her, overwhelmed. Pressing her face into the crook of her neck, she breathed her scent in deeply. Cinnamon, honey, earthy clay, and the slightest hint of metal. Warm, sweet, comforting smells. She must have been working into the night again, juggling sleeping pups around her latest creation. Sometimes, she wondered if her mind ever rested.

She held her, felt her breathing and the vibrations of her purrs through her mandibles. Her frame was fragile, yet as her four arms wrapped around her own body and cradled her, she felt secure. Like a Ketch rocked by the strongest storm, anchored to the ground and immovable no matter how far it swayed.

Tears pricked at her eyelids, holding her so tight that she feared her arms would lock up and she would never be able to let go again. Although such a situation would have been the furthest thing from a problem. It would be a favour, long overdue. She longed to hold her in that way since the terrible day she found her in the ruins of their nursery, destroyed by the Dark.

"What happened?" she murmured into her ear, stroking her back with a hand. Just as she did with their pups to soothe them.

Eramis opened and closed her mouth, but no sound came out. She didn't know where to start. Her life seemed to flash before her eyes as she wracked through every memory. This Athrys was only a dream-figure, but there was no need to worry her. If she came with all the physicalities that made her feel true to life, then she would also have the fussing and chittering over the scuffles she got herself into.

"It was a nightmare. There was a great gust," she started after what felt like an eternity, uncertain of her words. Compacting all the trauma she had experienced, all the horrors she had seen by both Eliksni and humanity alike, into one digestible summary was no easy task. "A Whirlwind. Riis...the Great Machine, it- it was gone. We drifted for centuries, tracking its movements. There was so much fighting. So much death. And...you- you were-"

Athrys waited for her to continue, expectant. By that point, she had gently removed her arms from around her and held her hands instead, rubbing her thumb against the back of her hand.

Glancing down between her mate's small hands in her own and her concerned, earnest expression, Eramis hesitated. She couldn't say it. Speaking her fate aloud would make it too real. Just the slightest consideration of what happened threatened to topple the dream in itself, and she couldn't lose Athrys again. Not so soon. "No, never mind," she shook her head. "I don't want to think about it."

"That sounds horrible," Athrys hummed. "But it was only a dream, and you're safe now. Riis is always going to be here."

Eramis rumbled, lowering her gaze. Better to pretend that it was truly nothing more than a bad dream, and to forget about everything in the past. While she was with her in the gardens of home-Riis, none of it existed. It was just the two of them and the flowers.

"And you know, I'm always here too," she came close and nudged her forehead against hers with a smile. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I know you are," she pressed her forehead to her mate's in return, their helms clanking together. Even through layers of metal, she could feel her mate's affection calming her like an aura she emanated. "We should get going."

Athrys chirruped, content to let her dreams be lost. Letting go of one hand to help her up, she said, "Yes, let's get you home. The pups will be wondering where we've gotten to."

Eramis chuckled as she got to her feet. As she moved, her own armor caught her attention. It was just as it used to be before the paint was stripped and chipped away down to metal, pristine white and black. Her sash and cloak were in equally good condition, still the same bright blue that her mate loved so much. They used to belong to her, before she gave them to her when they began courting. Both of them were Devils, and while blue was the colour of the Wolves and Winter, variety was the spice of life. Reverence for one another came before their honour of the House. 

A narrow, curved bridge stretched across the river. It was their joint project, as was the rest of the garden. Athrys drew up the design, and she brought the materials along so that they could construct it together. It didn't take long to finish, scarcely a day, but it was theirs.

They had spent hours by the bridge or on it before, watching the ships come and go from their great city sprawled under the shadow of the Great Machine, or bringing their pups to splash in the river on hot days. Teaching them about the creatures that lived amidst the lilypads and water flowers, and how to respect the natural world. Sometimes, Athrys would go there to meditate, to tend to the flowers and plant new ones.

Nobody else but themselves knew they were there. The gardens were open for anyone to access, but not their hidden place near the waterfalls.They had their own space in their village, outside their home, but the scenery wasn't as pleasant. Like the Great Machine aligning with the placement of the bridge, and the suns rising roughly at each end. Both were hidden by the rolling hills and trees around the settlement.

"How long was I here? It's dawn." Eramis wondered aloud, looking around the garden with a sense of disbelief.

"I don't know, I came out here to watch the sunrise, and then I found you," Athrys then gasped softly, tugging at her hand. "Can we stay? It's just a little longer until the suns-rise."

"Of course we can." She hadn't seen a Riis suns-rise in so long. Earth sunrises had their own beauty to them with their blazing oranges and deep blues, and she supposed that there was a certain appea to the other ways it manifested on other planets in the Sol System. But none were as stunning as the twin suns shining bright through the Ether-rich atmosphere. To deny her the simple pleasure of watching the sky change colour and the suns to illuminate and eclipse against the Great Machine while she was at her side once more was unfair.

Athrys trilled, delighted as she let herself be led to the middle of the bridge. "When you came home, weren't Kridis and Variks with you? Where did they go?"

"They went home," Eramis didn't know where either of them were, but the answer came out before she could think too hard about it. It was nice to hear that she was around her old friends in another realm. Kridis was training as a priestess and lived close to Variks in the city, so she usually was left to her own devices to wander home to the village. "They have their rituals to attend to around now."

"Is laying down in our garden and going to sleep here one of your rituals, too?" Athrys tittered, teasing.

"Only if you're going to join me one day."

"Maybe I will," she sighed, gazing out across the water. "You seemed quite happy."

Eramis folded her upper arms and rested against the edge of the bridge wall, and as much as she tried to focus on looking to the horizon, she couldn't take her eyes off her mate. Looking at her made her feel giddy, and she wanted to scoop her up and hold her close, dance with her amongst the flowers, tell her stories of all the wonderful things she had seen on her travels through the other realm.

Earth would have fascinated her - it would sound to her as much a fairy tale land as Riis was seen as to the younger Eliksni. She would have been intrigued by the strange, blocky architecture, their primitive modes of transport, and all the varying cultures blending together across the planet. She often wondered what art she would have made when inspired by the human things. There were circles in Light, triangles in the Dark, and in a world where Athrys made it to Earth, perhaps cubes. Stacks and stacks of cubes and rectangles. Weak, breakable shapes, but she would find a way to make them strong.

There were a thousand words Eramis could have said to her, but none of them were right for the moment. Instead of saying anything and breaking the silence, she chose to bask in her presence. She needed to take in the quiet and the calm, appreciating everything she had and everything her mate was. Like how the light of the higher sun lit her slightly rounded face. Her delicate, yet calloused hands and her pointed claws. The strand of pale brown hair sneaking out from the top of her headpiece and curling towards one eye.

She was everything she could have wanted. It hurt her heart slightly to remember it was all only a fleeting dream. ' _When will I see you like this again? Will it last forever?_ ' The longer she stared at Athrys, the harder she tried to commit each passing second to memory, savouring her. Dreams had to end eventually.

"I'm glad we've got this time together. I know you must have seen this ten thousand times over," Athrys said after a while. "But I never got the chance to, myself. Never with you, Eramis."

Her chest swelled. It had been a long time since they were together at dawn and had nothing to do. Athrys always appreciated the little things, and as their lives got busier and there were more duties to undertake for their own family, the village, and their House, the less time they got to have those quiet moments together. Once the pups had bedded down for the night, they had time to spend with one another. Unfortunately, by that point they were mostly falling asleep on top of each other in preparation for the next busy day ahead.

Regret and guilt twisted her heart to know that she should have made time to indulge in those things with her, more than she already did in the past. Time marched on. Every second without her was a second lost that would never be regained. "I wish I could stay and spend every sunrise with you." she murmured.

"You don't have to wish. We're already here." Athrys replied, blinking her backmost eyes at her in pleasure.

Eramis mirrored her, before wincing and squeezing her eyes shut as the sun rose and shone into the right side of her face. Only then did she realize that her lost eyes had been returned. Athrys wasn't seeing her scars and slightly sunken, uneven eyelids. She saw her true self. The navigator and explorer, the mother, the friend of many Eliksni. Not the battle scarred, long-hardened warrior she was in the other world.

Through the eyes she could still see out of, her gaze drifted back to the Great Machine. ' _Maybe it sees how I used to be, too.'_ Squinting _,_ she raised her hand up, and the god slipped into the curve of her palm. Her claws gripped the edges of its form, and for a moment she held the world. She felt like a pup again, filled with awe and wonder about the orb hanging above and what knowledge it could bring.

It may have just been a dream, but it felt like something _more_ . To gaze on the Great Machine and not seethe at its very existence felt unnatural. Eliksni worshipped it so fervently because of what it represented - hope, safety, love, light and joy. In that moment, beside Athrys in their private garden, she realized the same spark was lighting within her. She had forgotten what it was to feel those emotions.

Everything was safe on Riis. To be still was to be weak, but the stillness and consistency was a comfort. The suns came up according to a predictable pattern. Rain started at the same times during the wet seasons. Her friends would always be there to talk to. Above it all, the Great Machine was constant. Her people thrived. _She_ thrived. That was why she was still drawn to its image, to be so driven to replicate it on a moon that was the antithesis of everything her home planet stood for.

The Darkness couldn't provide anything in the ways the Light could, and she knew she would be nowhere else except for on the bridge with Athrys by her side, where the machine-god accepted her as she was. Like the old days.

' _I'm home_.'

///

On Europa, the pyramid didn't fit neatly in her claws. It burst out. Uncontained. Unrestrained. Untamed. It slipped out from the ice encasing her hands and refused to be corralled.

On the wasteland that she was so desperate to name home, there was no Athrys. No suns. No private haven hidden from view. No hope for salvation.

There was a great gust over the platform she was frozen to.

So much fighting.

So much death.

Ruins of what was. Ruins of what _she_ was.

The ice cracked.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to roxanne_says_go_home (on here) for explaining how to write half the emotions in this fic to me LMAO.
> 
> This was a really interesting and challenging exercise for me, I don't write things like this very often at all! I also did this in three and a half days, so go me :)


End file.
